A View from the Bridge at Chichester


 Chichester Festival Theatre has a great auditorium which means that every seat has an excellent view, and even though we were at the side for this performance I don't think we missed a thing.

With themes of toxic masculinity, immigration, culture clashes and uncontrolled passions, this 70 year old play feels as fresh as ever.  Although it's structured with a Greek chorus in the form of the lawyer Alfieri (Nancy Crane)  this actually feels quite Shakespearian too, and the operatic punctuation reminds us that we were watching grand emotions being played out in the very non-grand community of Italian immigrants living and working in the New York docks.  I am not sure I had the same response as lots of others in the audience, but I really enjoyed it, and we were talking about this all the way home.  I can't talk about it without spoilers though so be beware!!  

I enjoyed all the performances here.   Eddie (Jonathan Slinger)  is clearly a troubled man with a strong sense of his own entitlement, and is played from the start as someone just keeping it all together, with intense feelings towards his niece (Rachelle Diedricks), and a corresponding lack of feeling towards his wife.  Into this mix, add in the 'submarines' or Sicilian immigrants living undercover in his house, particularly when Rudolfo, the blond pretty one (who he suspects to be gay and just looking to marry for citizenship) is taking his 'property' in the form of his niece.  From his perspective, it's not surprising he feels justified that he has a lot to be angry about, even if the law says he has no right to do anything about it.   Marco (Tommy Sim’aan) with his own sense of masculinity and honor challenges Eddie (love the chair trick!), and and accelerates the diminishing of Eddie's status as he gradually loses control of  the niece that he loves too much.  Eddie's loss of control over his family, his place of masculine top dog and finally his own honour, (in his head as a result of the immigrants) leads inexorably to the crashing conclusion.  I found the ballet dancer that kept appearing a bit confusing, but I assume that he was to represent Eddie's conflicted sexual feelings, particularly in the light of that kiss with Rodolfo (Luke Newberry).   So, add confused sexuality to that sense of loss of control, and that sets us up nicely to the tragic denouement.   

The thing is, I know this is a tragedy, but in the moment, I didn't feel the sadness that a lot of the audience around me were feeling.  I just think that the rest of the family will have a better life without him, so actually, you could even say it was a happy ending?  That is probably pushing it a bit, and I can feel sympathy that the world wasn't as he wanted it to be but still...  the damage that is done by entitled people imposing their views and ways of life on others is too vivid in the world at the moment for me to feel anything more than good riddance.  

What a great play though, that in just about 2 hours, a handful of people on a stage can have a roomful of strangers getting properly emotionally engaged in complicated moral dilemmas and the messy business of being human.

And on a practical note, I feel sorry for the wardrobe department having to get blood out of that wedding dress after every performance.

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